There’s never a dull moment here on Protection Island. We combine our island chores with our own hobbies and interests every day.

Today for instance, I wanted oreo cookies. We won’t be ashore for a few days and didn’t buy them on our last shopping trip but luckily I found a great recipe on the internet. You can see it here. I just happened to have all the ingredients, mostly, on hand. A well stocked larder is the key to life’s pleasures. We don’t have a mixer or beater and we don’t even have a wooden spoon in our kitchen. But my hands and a strong, long handled, metal serving spoon did the trick. Although I overcooked them a little and shaped the cookies too big, they are delicious and satisfied my craving. I may let Tim eat one or two as well.

Yesterday I reached a milestone. I finished knitting a lace shawl I started for my daughter in 2015 while we were caretakers on Deal Island, Tasmania. I wrote about it here. I knit the body of the shawl, which measured 60 x 30″, during our 3 month fall season there and brought it home to “just” finish the edging. I could knit about 3 inches of edging a night, there were 17 feet of edging to knit, or 204 inches, which basically would have taken 3 solid months, every night. But other projects intervened. So with some devoted knitting time here and the courage finally to rip out my provisional cast on, the shawl is complete. The pattern was recreated from a lace stole made in the Shetland Islands by Mrs. Jane Thomasina Williamson and was a joy to knit.

Here’s my version.

I’ll wait until I get home to wash and block it in our pristine well water.

The other activity I obviously enjoy is taking photographs. The scenery and wildlife are inspiring. Sometimes unexpected, to me at least, results occur. I took a few photographs of sunset when we went out for a walk after dinner. I must confess, I almost always only use my iphone these days for photos. I am sooo lazy. I even gave away my SLR camera.

Anyhow, when I looked at the photos, they were marred by a green dot. Not the rumored green flash seen at sunset. A distinct dot off to the side. A quick google search revealed it happens commonly with the iphone camera because…well the reason eluded me. Something about not having filters and a reflection off the lens. It may be prevented by aiming the camera so the green dot ends up in the middle of the bright light. Or it can be edited from the photo. Since I already had the shots I chose to edit them.

Here is the original photo, I was trying to catch a silhouette of a cruise ship leaving the Strait of Juan de Fuca near the New Dungeness Lighthouse.

Notice the green dot. Next I tried to edit it with Snapseed. This was my first attempt with interesting results. The area I “healed” ended up in a different place and two ships appeared.

Interesting but not what I was aiming for. Here’s the final version.

See how the day flies by?

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That’s what they say when a woman goes into labor. Preparations must be made. Our third grandchild was born on Monday, 4 + weeks early. We are thrilled but weren’t quite prepared. I had started to knit this lovely sweater during our trip to the Olympic Peninsula. It’s a pattern by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee called Noveau-ne. It will be lovely but could not be finished in time for Tim’s departure. Here’s how far along I am.

It needs a little more length and a couple of sleeves, and a bonnet and maybe booties. I thought I had plenty of time. We both had planned to be home individually to span the projected arrival. Ah the best laid plans. Tim spent most of Monday rescheduling his trip. It entailed a boat ride ashore at 04:45 yesterday. I finally saw the sunrise, or was awake enough to take a photo. It was lovely when we left the island after the wind from Monday settled down.

I dropped him off at the marina and headed back to the island, where I’m the only inhabitant at the moment. He took a bus, ferry, bus, 2 planes, bus, train and should be there by today. Ah modern travel.

I thought I would put something together fast so all day Monday, while Tim arranged his trip with airlines, bus companies, hotels, etc. and waited for word on the labor’s progression, I pieced together several squares woven on a 4″ pin loom. I have to confess, the squares came with the second hand loom but I had it in mind I would make a bonnet or something from them. Then I got more ambitious and made a vest.

It is sort of sweet but in the end, I decided it gave me something to do rather than pace or boil water and served its purpose. I didn’t send it off with Tim. I’ll decide if little Juniper gets it when I am home.

In the meantime, the eagles and deer will look after me while I am here on my own.

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A pair of caretakers we met in Tasmania said every day they tried to do something for themselves, something for the island and something physical. They had a cute acronym I can’t remember, PIG (physical, island, growth); CrEW (create, exercise, work); CARE (create, activity, read, enhance; or caretake, activity, read, exercise). You get the idea, something like that. We’ve found a pretty nice balance.

We have to clean the dock and boat every day, not as bad as it sounds. It uses water pressure mostly and is fairly gratifying. I proposed we sit and spray the seagulls before they even soil the dock instead but it’s probably frowned upon on at a bird refuge.

We keep the cabin tidy and mow the grass around buildings.

We worked as migrant labor for a few days and dug up 15 gallons of daffodil bulbs. No easy task in chest high grass. I’m only mildly broken. Hope the sale goes well.

Tim practices piano a couple of hours a day. I knit, weave, bake, and read. I’ve completed two sweaters, one was basically done before we got here and has come in very handy. We either wear long sleeve wool shirts or sleeveless shirts. There doesn’t seem to be an in between.

I bake bread, pizza, pies and crisps. Have to keep my partner happy.

I usually weave a bit in the morning. I finished a belt, am trying to learn Andean pebble weave on a backstrap loom, and have some card weaving projects in mind.

I knit up a bag to use on our bikes when we go shopping from leftover scraps.

Now I’m trying to finish a lace shawl I started in 2015 for my dear daughter. It may happen.

That’s me. The daffodils we marked a couple of weeks ago with one foot tall flags are now surrounded by chest high grass. It makes finding them, surprisingly challenging. But I gathered a shovel and bucket and off I went to harvest daffodil bulbs to take off island to possibly sell as a fundraiser for the Friends group. I labored for a couple of hours and collected a bucket full of bulbs from about 25 plants.

When I looked up from my work I saw a deer grazing nearby who couldn’t care less about me.

I finished knitting a sweater I made for myself that began in earnest on our plane ride on April 24. I love it. I may get to wear it over the next couple of days when the weather will be wet and cool.

The pattern was Ennis Pullover by Sarah Solomon and it was an interesting knit. Now on my needles is a mesh market bag so we can hold our food in a secure bag on the bike rack.

i wanted to clear out the refrigerator leftover sauce and cheese so made a delish pizza for lunch.

And challenged myself to make a cake from scratch, without even a hand mixer or wooden spoon! We only have a large serving spoon that serves as a wooden spoon and a plastic whisk. But it worked.

We weren’t the only ones who ate well yesterday. This crab was on our porch when I must have interrupted a seagull’s feast.

After my work was done, I took a walk and watched the eagles soar.

The wind picked up and they were able to hang on the air.

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Who needs TV when we had a night like last night? We sat down to a late dinner (pork tenderloin, peas, applesauce, salad and brownies) when the seagulls got stirred up. All at once they were all in the air flying. That’s a lot of seagulls in flight and they were joined by a few eagles. It didn’t seem like the eagles started it but it was one great fly fest. Two eagles buzzed right in front of the window where we sat.

At the same time rainbows appeared and kept evolving. It was spectacular.

Today was a bit more mundane. We took out the boat to patrol the island during one of Washington state’s three halibut fishing days. All boats we saw respected the 200 yard boundary around the island. I worked on docking in wind. And provisioned – I made yogurt, a loaf of bread and dinner.

I finally got my band weaving out and used some of the knots I worked on during my boating course to secure my band to a post.

A lovely weaving spot except it’s under a barn swallow nest on the porch. We’ll see if they keep letting me weave there. Plus there’s an otter under there as well. It’s a sanctuary out there!

I’ve been working on an aran sweater for myself. It’s coming along, s l o w l y. I actually knit the whole back piece before we left but learned it was WRONG and I had to rip it all out. This is RIGHT. And so pretty.

Here’s a panoramic view of the harbor with our boat, the Auklet, tied up alongside a clean dock. The harbor is protected from the wind but not the birds.

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I was right about the ice in my last, truncated, post. There were more cold water rescues and deaths under the ice than I remember in the past.

Weather has been all over the place- snow, lots of snow, 60 degrees, rain, lightning, ice melt and not quite raging rivers and temps below zero this weekend. There were some fabulous cross country ski days tucked in there, when Tim was able to lure me from my fiber den.

My fingers have been nimble and warm at home.

I finished weaving this christening outfit in time for the blessing. It was stunning if I do say so myself.

And fit like a dream. It’s woven with 720 fine mercerized cotton threads as warp and cotton and silk weft.

Tim likes his new sweater and under/over shirt made of alpaca and wool.

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I was very excited to attend an overshot weaving workshop at Red Stone Glen fiber art studio in western Pennsylvania – 7+ hours from home.

First my car was declared unsafe to drive by my mechanic and had to be left behind for repair. We high tailed it up to Plattsburgh INTERNATIONAL Airport where I picked up a rental car.

I sorely missed my deer whistles en route while I saw live and not so live deer along the highways. And I missed my EZ Pass. Did you know it costs $15 to drive across PA. No bridges or tunnels, just highway with deer. I don’t appreciate how muc tolls cost when I breeze through in the 65 mph lane.

And I spent 4 hours cautiously driving through this storm.

But I arrived at my cabin on a lake at Gifford Pinchot State Park unscathed. And I never met the prey in my bedroom.

I brought projects from home to work on in the evenings.

I enjoyed mornings on the lake with coffee.

And wove for 2 full days to make this beautiful overshot shawl.

Now I’m visiting my precious new grandson (and his parents) but may need to skedaddle in my rental car without deer whistles or snow tires because 10″ of snow is forecast at home!